


i think your love would be too much

by I_writewhatiwant



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beach Trip, Because of Reasons, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), That's it, au where they're missing only for 3 months instead of 3 years, b99 references because why not, because of course, mentions of adashi, night club, space roadtrip but it's a little sad, that's the fic, vacations on florida
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_writewhatiwant/pseuds/I_writewhatiwant
Summary: Lance tells him things of no importance. He tells him of easy missions, playing Monsters and Mana, of the time Pidge and Matt got into this or that competition, a diplomatic mission where Allura couldn’t hold back her laughter, of Hunk and the new things he cooked, and the time Lance beat Killbot Phantasm in less than a day, all 36 levels.It does its job and it doesn’t really take all that long for Lance to fall asleep mid-sentence. Keith gives himself a few minutes to watch the tension leave his body, the way his face relaxes and his lashes flutter until he settles.Then he cuts the transmission and goes to sleep.(he doesn’t want to think of the flashes he got, of lance with stubble and lines along his eyes, sleeping in a bed beside him, curling around keith like he belonged there, like there was no other place for him to be than by his side).
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 167





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> title from sunflower . i just think it's neat.
> 
> (can anyone guess all the references? there are so many)

The flashes from the Abyss are not set in stone. The future is not. Nothing guarantees what he saw was his own reality, nothing can prove what he saw will happen.

Krolia says some say the future is like a river. It can branch off, split, it can come back together. Your decisions shape your future, and the time collapses and shows infinite possibilities, infinite alternate dimensions where everything is different, or just one thing, or just a couple.

There are things that happen. The fight with Shiro, a flash of himself sitting in the Black Lion as they travelled back to Earth, a conversation back in the whale he had with his mother. Dozing off in front of a fire on a planet they stopped to rest on.

There are things he wants to happen. Waking up from a nap on a warm apartment. Pidge running to her mother. A dinner with Shiro and Adam, older, happier, calmer. A child he lifts into his arms, sticky hands hitting his cheeks as they shriek with laughter. A man holding him close under flashing lights.

A warm body underneath his, tanned skin and blue eyes and a perfect mouth. Firm hands against his shoulders. A gentle kiss goodbye.

Waking up on a giant bed with a ring on his finger was not something he thought he’d ever want or ever even get, but the Abyss shows him that, tells him somewhere in the universe, somewhere in at least one timeline, he gets that. Gets someone to love him enough to stay.

There are all kinds of flashes, nonlinear, but they are all his or Krolia’s. He can’t see things where neither of them was there. Sometimes he can’t even see, just hear or feel things in the midst of white, can feel his hear beating loudly on his chest, almost hurting, can feel excitement and dread and terror curling on his stomach, but he cannot see anything.

Which, in a way, is better.

(keith is maybe six years old in this memory, and his father’s hands are firm where they hold him, his voice warm as he points out where the breaks and the accelerator for his hoverbike are. keith remembers the way the sun had been almost too hot, the way the sand kicked up when he accelerated and the way his father held him close on his lap.

the next second, he’s thirteen and shiro’s voice is warm as he points out where the breaks and the accelerator for his hoverbike are. keith rides alone that time, and the wind blows his hair away from his face where it’s not stuck by his goggles. he remembers the way laughter had bubbled out of him for the first time in a long time)

They lose the Castle. They lose it, the one place they had called home for over two years, just gone, reduced to one tiny little diamond Hunk keeps on his Lion, small enough it can fit comfortably on his hand.

They keep it locked there, for safe keeping. Pidge and Hunk run scanners for it, argue with Coran about what it all means and then they don’t mention it to anyone they encounter.

It’s more powerful than a Balmera crystal.

They argue a little about it, actually. About going home. Olkarion is more advanced than Earth.

Olkarion is also twice as far away.

So they decide Earth is better, because Earth has the plans for a new Castle.

They don’t talk about how they still have to fight, after going home.

They put Shiro in the pod where his body rested and decide to rest. Everyone crashes pretty quickly.

Or, everyone but Lance crashes, and Keith is getting ready to sleep on his chair so he can monitor Shiro’s vitals on the screens when the calls comes through.

“Lance?” Keith answers the call, and Lance appears on his screen, curled up on his chair, red lights bathing him on the Red Lion’s cockpit and turning his armor to purple. It’s hard to see with that lighting, but Keith is pretty sure Lance’s eyes are a little red.

“Hey. Are you busy?” Lance’s voice is a little bit shaken, and he can’t quite hide the little sniff that escapes him as he makes himself a little bit more comfortable in Red.

“No, just about to go to sleep. Is something wrong?” he asks, leaning back and trying to muffle a yawn. He always crashed the hardest after a mission. He’s just awake because he was making sure everything was okay, a job Shiro had always taken before when he was there. It seems like a lifetime away since the last time he was on a mission with him.  
  


“No, I just…can we talk? For a little while?” Lance’s voice is small and hesitant when he asks, and it breaks something in Keith’s heart to hear him so unsure. 

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. Wait a sec,” he turns and whistles for his wolf, who comes trotting in from the back of Black “Hey, you. Can you go to Red? Keep Lance company for a while?” he runs his hands through his wolf’s fur before he disappears with a flash.

“Hey, boy. What are you doing here? Did Keith kick you out? Do you want to stay here? Yeah, you do!” and Lance sounds a bit more cheery now, so that at least is a win, even if seeing him talk to his wolf like that brings something in his chest he thought he had buried a long time ago, something he thought two years away might have faded.

As if he was so lucky.

“Don’t baby him.”

“I’ll do as I damn well please, Kogane,” Lance says back, and it has no bite to it. It makes Keith smile.

Lance tells him things of no importance. He tells him of easy missions, playing Monsters and Mana, of the time Pidge and Matt got into this or that competition, a diplomatic mission where Allura couldn’t hold back her laughter, of Hunk and the new things he cooked, and the time Lance beat Killbot Phantasm in less than a day, all 36 levels.

He doesn’t explain the new scars on his face, doesn’t tell him of how Shiro tried to tell him he was in the Black Lion all along.

Still, it does its job and it doesn’t really take all that long for Lance to fall asleep mid-sentence. Keith gives himself a few minutes to watch the tension leave his body, the way his face relaxes and his lashes flutter until he settles.

Then he cuts the transmission and goes to sleep.

(he doesn’t want to think of the flashes he got, of lance with stubble and lines along his eyes, sleeping in a bed beside him, curling around keith like he belonged there, like there was no other place for him to be than by his side).

It’s just a hum, at first, on the fourth day of traveling. They keep the comms open, sometimes, even if they barely even pick up their breathing without their helmets on. But it’s reassuring, most of the time, to know that if they just spoke, everyone else would listen.

So they all hear it, at first. The way Lance hums most of the lines before mumbling the last words of some verses.

And it sounds, suspiciously, like he’s mumbling “it wasn’t me”.

Until he really starts to sings.

“ _Honey came in and she caught me red handed, creeping with the girl next door,_ ” Lance sings, crystal clear, and he actually has a really good voice, nice pitch and everything, but he registers that just a second before he register the lyrics and—

“Oh my fucking god,” Keith barks out a laugh, because he _knows_ that song, can probably sing the chorus with how often it had played on the radio his dad had on their kitchen, back when he was a kid. After some years it had stopped playing as much, or maybe Keith didn’t listen to radio that much anymore, he’s not sure, but like most lyrics, it comes to his mind surprisingly easy when he followed along with someone else.

“Shit—!” they hear, before the comms disconnect. On reflex, he hits the button to call Lance, and sees that the other human pilots have done the same when all three of them pop up on his screen once Lance accepts the call.

Or maybe he didn’t, because Pidge has a big shit-eating grin on her face, and he honestly can’t put it past her to override things like that.

(he knows she knows how to do it. knows that she can do it in less than a second, has green programed for it, has done for years now, because once he had been shot down, and it had looked bad, real bad, and he had taken over two seconds to answer as he tried to get his head to stop spinning, and then her face had been on the small screen close to his left hand without him hitting any buttons, without swipping any calls, and she was worried and yelling and asking why would he put himself between the shot and her, she had it, keith what were you thinking—)

“I can’t believe Lance was singings Shaggy,” Pidge is the first to react, snickering as they lean away from the screen, hands lazy on the controls of her Lion. Shiro is beside her, choosing to ride with her since they touched down yesterday, and his face is amused, even if he tries to mask it.

“It was a hit when we were kids, okay?! I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” Lance defends himself, and his shoulders come up to his ears as he curls into himself. He’s alone in Red, Romelle riding with Allura, and he seems smaller than ever.

“Boombastic would have been worse,” Hunks says from Yellow. “I could never get that out of my head after I saw that movie about the cow.”

“He was a bull!”  
  


“But he had—”

“He was _trans_ , Hunk, of course—” as they start to discuss, Keith mutes himself to them and leaves the channel open to Lance, calling his name to get his attention.

“You okay?” Keith asks, soft but loud enough he can be heard over the bickering.

  
“Yeah, of course.”

But Keith sees on how tense his shoulders are, on the way he has bags under his eyes and his smile is just shy of forced, that this trip and what awaits for them is taking its toll on Lance. Any other time, he could have believed Lance had done it to cheer them up, so they could laugh about something. But he can see now that this is not the case, that it was an actual mistake.

  
That this singing is not the one Lance does to pass the time, but rather the one where he sings the songs he thinks he’s forgetting, just like how sometimes Keith could hear him mumbling on Spanish. That he did that not expecting anyone to hear, like how sometimes Keith could hear him ranting on Spanish on his bedroom, late at night when most were asleep.

(he had heard him sobbing. The words that had fallen from his lips hadn’t been english, and keith might have been a bad student, but he remembers some spanish, knows that he’s saying sorry, over and over and over again, that he calls his mom and says sorry and begs forgiveness for something that would never be his fault).

Sometimes Keith wakes up, panting and scared, and he can feel the heat on his cheek and see the yellow eyes, the snarl and the glowing purple, can taste the blood and feel the exhaustion on his bones—

He looks to the side, walks to the back of Black, calls another lion just to see white hair and kind eyes and a scar that wasn’t always there but now seems like a comfort, and his voice soothes the fear that had been freezing him up.

The closer they fly to Earth—which is…not much, actually, and the days stretch before them, longer and blurring together even when they stop to rest—, the less allies they have. They are going to places with less populated planets, where the Galra haven’t managed to conquer yet, and the alliances are harder and harder to find. They’re too weak to even form Voltron, and five individual lions while impressive, are not a great show of power, and that’s without counting the lack of Castle and communication. The Coalition hasn’t even been heard of, in most planets, so they have no way of proving anything, and the most they can get is the kindness shown to weary travelers.

Even with Pidge’s best efforts, the Lions are too drained to reach planets they know.

They keep trying, though. Every day.

But Keith can see the way they are feeling a little hopeless, with little resources and little to do but keep traveling.

They touch down on a planet for supplies, three weeks in. They’re trying to cut their visits to planets as much as they can to keep traveling for as long as they can, but the trip has been taxing, and stopping even for the night has been a blessing lately. Hunk, Coran and Shiro are discussing what food may be safe to eat, crowded around a stall on what appears to be a farmer’s market, while Pidge disappears off, followed closely by Kosmo, and the others have dispersed until that leaves just Lance and Keith near the lions.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just haven’t been sleeping all that well lately. I swear Romelle talks more than a bird—sorry, I can’t remember the word for _perico_ , it’s a saying, it’s a bird—sorry.” Lance sighs and brings a hand to grip the bridge of his nose.

“It’s okay, Lance. You just…seem down.” He puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezes enough so he can feel it even through all their armor, and waits until Lance raises his eyes to offer a smile.

“I guess I can of am. I’ll be okay, though.”

Keith makes a noise at that but decides to drop the subject. It’s been weeks since he managed to pull anything from Lance.

“Do you want to help me find a place to sleep for the night?”

“We’re not sleeping outside our lions?” Lance comes up to his side and falls into step.

“Nah, I think we deserve a real bed.” Keith smiles, and eyes the purple under Lance’s eyes.

Once upon a time, before he left for the Blade, back when Shiro was missing and Lance was the person he could trust the most, he would get quiet, too. Withdrawn. Sad. It wasn’t easy to watch then, and it’s not easy to watch now, but over the months Keith had gotten better at figuring out what Lance might use when he fell too deep down.

They search until they find an inn that suits their budget and manage to find four rooms for all of them, two triples, a double and a single.

“Okay, so how do we divide them?” Keith turns to Lance, keys in hand, and Lance seems confused for a second before recovering.

“Um…I mean, Allura, Romelle and Pidge could take one.” Lance takes one trio of keys.

“Okay, Krolia and me can take the double." He puts those keys on his other hand, leaving the keys to one triple and the single.

“Hunk, Coran and I can take the other triple." Lance grabs those, and Keith looks at the keys that remain.

“And Shiro alone?”

“How has he been? With the nightmares, I mean,” Lance asks, and Keith remembers he had been talking with Shiro lately. His brother had taken to riding with Lance too, some days, and he’s not sure what they talk about, but it must be personal matters if Lance knows of Shiro’s nightmares.

“He still has them, but I think he’s getting better. Maybe being alone without Krolia and me watching his every move could do some good.” _Me_. He means himself, because even if he has told him a million times it’s okay, that the nightmares are barely even there (even if he’s lying, and he still searches for his brother to reassure himself he’s there and alive and _himself_ ), Shiro looks guilty every time he sees his burn scar.

“So, that’s settled?”

“Unless Pidge wants to be with you guys and Coran with Allura and Romelle.” Keith shrugs, pocketing the keys for the double.

“I think Romelle would feel better with Pidge. Says Coran snores too much." Lance chuckles, pocking one set of keys too.

“You’ll be alright with Coran’s snores, then?” He digs his elbow on Lance’s ribs, and Lance laughs a little as he pulls away.

“I can manage.”

“Lance. You need to get some rest.”

“I will. I promise.”

He talks to Krolia. It’s not hard to convince her.

There aren’t many secrets between them after two years seeing each other’s life.

He sees it again on the whale. Lance and he are sitting on the lounge room, and he has a tablet on his hands while Lance leans over to point places they haven’t searched for Shiro yet. He wanted to bring up the last mission, where Lance saved him from a sentry he hadn’t even noticed, but every time he tried, he realized he didn’t know how.

“Lance,” he said, maybe in his fifth or sixth try.

“Yeah?”

“…Thank you,” he blurted out before he could chicken out again.

“What for?” Lance had cocked his head to the side, soft, and Keith’s heart had skipped a beat before starting again, faster.

“For having my back." And then he realized then it was more than just last mission. It had been weeks of Lance supporting him, of him deciding he was a good leader, even if he couldn’t see it, of taking right hand duties seriously, even if those had never existed when Keith piloted Red.

“It’s what I do. I’m your right-hand man, remember?” Lance winked, and he really didn’t know the things that did to Keith. Still did to him, where he was standing on the edge of the room, and his eyes had watered as he saw Lance again for the first time in maybe the three months he had been on that whale.

“You’re more than that,” he said, softly, almost without meaning, but completely meaning it. Lance darkened up to his ears and mumbled a few times before he could really talk. When he composes himself, he laid a hand on one of his where he was gripping the tablet and squeezed.

“It’s what we do, okay? I look out for you, and you look out for me.”

“I guess nothing bad can happen then,” he had huffed, a half smile on his lips, and Lance had mirrored it.

“Oh. Sorry, I got the wrong room,” Lance says when he steps into the room and sees Keith. He’s got his bag hanging from his shoulder, small with the so few things they carry with them, still wearing his armor.

“No, you didn’t. I got Coran to swap with me.” Keith takes his bag and throws it to the bed closer to the door, taking the towel and bathrobe that lay there and turning around to face Lance.

“…why?”

“Because I don’t snore, and I can make sure you actually sleep. Now go shower.” He throws the things into Lance’s face and points to the bathroom.

When Lance comes out of the bathroom, Keith is already laying down over the covers. Hunk had said on his comms he was alright, just securing some provisions and that he would be a little later, so not to worry.

“Oh, so you didn’t drown in there,” he says without raising his eyes from the book he’s reading on this tablet, and receives a towel to the face for his troubles.

“I’ll have you know it was a perfectly respectable time to be in the shower. Also, I’m a good swimmer, so joke’s on you.” Lance throws himself on the bed closer to the door, the bed he always takes when they have to share rooms.

(it’s always been his bed, right next to the door, because he has the weapon that’s easiest to react. keith’s sword and knife, those need a bit of space to work, he needs just a bit of space to maneuver them, just like allura’s whip and hunk’s blaster. pidge’s and shiro’s arm need them to be too close, but lance’s blaster—not his bayard, but the one he puts under his pillow when he sleeps somewhere that’s not the castle ever since the first murder attempt they suffered on a “peaceful” planet—, it doesn’t need time to change, doesn’t need space. he’s fast to react, fast to point and fast to shoot, and with him close to the door, no one that wants to harm the team can make it past).

Lance wakes up from a nightmare, panting, and somehow Keith wakes up too even if Lance is being silent about it, stifling his sounds and making no noise as he pants. The room is small enough for Keith to reach out, to place a hand on his arm from where he’s laying even if it leaves him half-hanging from the bed.

He whispers soothing words under Hunk’s soft little snores, and Lance falls back asleep gripping his hand.

(they wake up like that, and hunk shoots him a smirk but pretends he didn’t see anything).

He sees them on the next planet they touch down on. There aren’t any intelligent lifeforms they know of, and the grass is as tall as them, violet as far as the eye can see, and the sun is green, bathing everything and making it seem darker than it is.

And Lance is talking to Allura, helmets sealed because it’s not a safe air but everyone is too tired to make it another day in the Lions, his eyebrows wiggling and his smile playful, and Allura is giggling; even if Keith can’t hear it, he knows because her eyes are crinkling in the corners and her hand is over the place her mouth should be, and Lance is blushing and rubbing the back of his neck, and then laughing and shoving her aside, gently, with care, and Keith finds himself turning around, looking away, running his fingers through Kosmo’s fur and walking back to Black, where he cannot see them.

(and it burns and weights, like molten iron, from his heart to his stomach, and it lingers in there and twists and makes his eyes water, and he’s such a fool for thinking that maybe lance had felt the same, had felt anything like what he feels, that he wasn’t still pining after allura, and hadn’t he shoved them together when he fucked off with the blade? he had thought it would help, had thought that he could forget about lance, as if there is such a thing with him, as if anyone can ever forget lance and the way he smiles and his never ending trust and support, as if anyone can ever forget how blue his eyes are and how blinding his smile is, how beautiful, how it can make you smile even in your worst moments, even if you don’t think about it).

He hears them giggling before bed and he falls asleep with tears catching on his eyelashes.

They go to a Marmora base and rest for three days. They might not have the best beds, but their showers are a dream.

They learn they lost three months after their fights with Lotor.

(pidge understands it better than him, tries to explain, but there isn’t much to understand. they were missing for three months. they’re back. it’s scary and confusing and dangerous and people are being hunted now, but if they get to earth, if they can just be back in the fight, then they can take back what has been lost and it all for once).

"I know it's not like, recent. But I need to do this because I've been wanting it forever, and we're all bored out of our minds, so we're going by Coran's nicknames, you all understand?" Lance’s voice interrupts a calm silence on the Black Lion, and when Keith checks, he sees he’s talking to all the Lions.

"Uh, Lance, what are you talking about?" Hunk answers him, only voice.

"Just answer when I say your numbers!” Lance insists, clearing his throat before he speaks. “Number one, can you please sing the opening to _I want it that way_?"

"Oh God." Shiro laughs from where he's sitting behind him, getting up and walking towards the screen.

"Is this what I think it is?" Keith asks him, as deadpan as he can when thinking of what's probably about to happen. A smile threatens to break out anyway, hearing Lance chirpy and happy.

"There's only one way of knowing." Shiro shrugs, still smiling, and Keith presses the button to open their comms. "Really? Okay _. You are....my fire..."_

"Number two, keep it going," Lance says, barely stifling his laughter, and suddenly four screens pop up in the Black Lion, covering his sights of the great _nothing_ beyond. Hunk and Pidge are already smiling, and his eyes are drawn to Lance, who's hanging on the edge of his seat, hands gripping Red's controls like he's trying to find something to anchor himself or he would jump from the screen and into the cockpit of Black.

"I do not understand what is going on. Is this a game like the bottles?" Allura asks, and behind her Romelle does look confused.

"Shhh, we'll explain later," Pidge answers, waving her hands and looking at where Hunk must be on her screen. Keith can hear the giggles she can't completely stifle, and it makes him smile to see her so excited about something. She had been beating herself up about the communications still not reaching anywhere.

"Alright, alright, shut up. _The one...desire..._ " Hunk sings, and behind him Coran looks curious, coming to his side to get a better view of everyone else.

"Number three—wait that's me _. Believe...when I saaay—_ Number four!" Lance perks up, looks straight at Keith and for a moment he's tempted to start singing on the spot, he knows the lyrics and he knows the scene, but he's never given anything to Lance easily and this will not be the exception. He can barely contain his smile when he answers.

"No."

"But Keith!" comes Pidge's whine not even a second later.

"Dude! C'mon, we know you watched the show, Shiro told me!" Lance begs, and Keith wastes no time to absolutely kill Shiro with his eyes. Really? Right to Lance? Did he also tell him he used to watch it in his underwear eating chocolate chips, or was that enough of a secret to kept it between the two of them and Adam?

"Fine! Fine! _I want it that way!_ "

" _Tell me why_!"

" _Ain't nothing but a heartache_!" The five of them sing, and Keith can see Krolia smiling, nodding her head like she knows the song.

" _Tell me why_!"

" _Ain't nothing but a mistake_!"

"Now number fiveee."

" _I never want to hear you say_!" Pidge screams, maybe a little too loudly but no one can blame her. It’s nice to see her be goofy, to see her young and without the weight of a fucking war on her tiny shoulders, to finally see her without the worry of her family now that she finally knows they’re all alive and well and she’s so, so close to home.

"Whoo!"

" _I want it that way._ "

"Chills, literal chills, you guys, this was great!" Lance fans himself, then wiping away an imaginary tear as he clutches his chest.

"You've been wanting to do this since we got those nicknames, don't lie!"

"Uh, yeah? Buddy, this was, like, my greatest accomplishment. I got Keith to sing!"

"Keith sings in the shower—ow! Keith!"

"Shut up! You're the worst brother!" He says between his teeth, and he's so focused on hitting whatever part of his brother he can reach, he doesn't notice Krolia creeping closer to the dashboard.

"I can confirm. Keith often makes up songs as he bathes, it's something he got from his father."

"MOM!" He can hear the other laughing and screaming, and when he looks at Lance, he's just smiling, softly in a way that has a whole new blush coming up to his cheeks.

“Oh, remember when you left your comms open and you were singing _flying in the red lion_?” And then the utter _betrayal_ comes in the shape of his brother.

"That's it, I'm back to being an orphan, you both are dead to me."

(they're coming down from the laughter, and allura and romelle still look confused, brows furrowed as they look at where lance must be on their screen as he talks about brooklyn nine-nine, and pidge's voice is so low they can barely hear it when she says.

"it was number five. number five killed my brother."

"oh my GOD I'D FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT.")

They still talk. Keith puts on his helmet so Shiro and Krolia can’t hear what they say, and when they’re like that, just two voices, not anyone else, Keith can think that maybe there is hope. That maybe Lance can feel the way they are effortless, the way they fit, and maybe Lance can see the way he makes everything easier for Keith.

(but then lance makes allura laugh, and keith is burning even if he doesn’t want to because those are his teammates, he should be happy, if lance is happy he _is_ happy, but the ugly feeling doesn’t listen to reasons and he can only go down, down, down—)

Keith is shaking the river water from his hair, under-suit wet and hanging from his other hand, clad in clothes they had gotten him on the first planet they had touched down at the start when they realized his clothes from before the Abyss didn’t fit him anymore, when he sees Lance sitting in front of the fire Krolia had started before they started the bath rotations.

He’s just staring at it, hair already dry and curling around his ears, his jacket on his shoulders, the one he had on him when he sneaked out of the Garrison the night Shiro came back to Earth. There is something about him that makes Keith want to curl his arms around him, to pull him closer until all he could feel and see and smell was Lance.

“You’ve been quiet,” he says as he takes a seat beside him, laying his under-suit beside Lance’s on a big trunk in front of the fire.

“It’s been seven weeks,” Lance says, still looking at the fire. “And we’re supposed to be travel for over a year, Keith. I just—how can I—we...” he opens and closes his mouth a few times, not finding the words for the things he wants to say, but Keith understands anyway. He thinks he always has.

“We’ll get there, Lance. I’ll get you there, that I can promise.” And Lance tries for a smile before he speaks again, but Keith watches as it’s barely there before it dies.

“I just really miss them, and now that we can _go home_ , and still we’re so far away…” Lance curls his legs closer, resting his forehead against his knees and staying that way.

“I’m sorry.”

“S’not your fault.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t feel sorry. But you _are_ seeing them again. Your parents, your brothers and your sister, I mean.”

“Sisters," Lance says, and when he raises his head, there are tears on his eyes.

“Oh. I thought—”

(and lance had mentioned his family, a thousand and one times before, and once it had been when they hadn’t been able to sleep and keith had found him in front of the hologram of earth in the bridge, and they had stayed in front of shiro’s seat, watching it spin and they had talked about growing up near the ocean, about the desert, about where the sunsets had more colors and what having an older brother was like.

keith had found himself not talking about adam. he was the only person that cared about him that he had left behind).

“It’s okay. I know I only mentioned one. Do you…do you want to see them?” And when Keith nods, Lance pulls out his phone from his pocket, the same one he had back on Earth and that, by some miracle, used the same charger Pidge’s did.

(hunk hadn’t been so lucky, but a few weeks into their space adventure, pidge had found an adapter on the monstrous mess that was her backpack.

they had never asked keith if he had a phone, but a few days after leaving arus, allura had given him the altean equivalent, and that had been enough).

Lance pulls up a picture, a different one from the one they had all seen on his mind, so many years ago. He’s on this one, being squeezed by a girl and having his hair ruffled by who he assumed was one of his brothers.

“That’s Luis, he’s the oldest, he was twelve when I was born. He’s married to Lisa; Silvio and Nadia are their kids. After him is my sister Verónica.” Lance points to a woman wearing a Garrison uniform.

“She seems familiar,” Keith mentions, and it’s not because she seems to have the same pointy chin Lance has.  
  


“She was on the Garrison. Communications officer. She’s about Shiro’s age, actually, so you probably saw her around. Anyway, that’s my brother Marco. He looks kinda dumb, but he’s really smart, just _very_ laid back. That’s my mom and my dad. And…that’s Rachel.” Lance’s eyes get sad when he points to the girl smooching him on the picture, her arms tight around him. She has a mane of wild brown curls, and from the side she looks _so much_ like Lance. “Her real name’s Raquel, but she likes Rachel better, like I like Lance better.”

“She’s your other sister?”

“She’s my twin.” And Keith can now see the way Lance’s eyes are misty, the way he blinks to keep the tears at bay. “I don’t talk about her because it hurts too much. It’s like missing a part of myself. Even in the Garrison it hurt, but now, miles away when I can’t talk to her every night, I…I think I’d have forgotten her face if it wasn’t for this, and that hurts. It fucking hurts.”

And suddenly it hit Keith in the face. Every time Lance didn't know how to explain something, when he left sentences hanging, waiting for someone to pick it up, every time Lance had only half-explained things like he had explained everything in detail.

He had been explaining things to Rachel. All that time, he had been missing his twin sister.

(the realization does something to keith's chest, puts a weight on his stomach because lance had been missing something so vital to him, he had barely even talked about it. he had never mentioned rachel and keith had thought, just a few seconds before, that maybe she had died, maybe she had been too distant, maybe she had run away _—_ but it was all wrong. lance had been missing the sibling he was closest to, the one with the age gap so small it was like they were the same person, and it made _sense—_ )

“She looks a lot like you,” he says, and Lance smiles.

“She has this jacket, too. We bought them together, the weekend before I left for the Garrison. Mine was too big because they didn’t have any other sizes, but she had loved them so much I just couldn’t deny her. And then back at the castle one day I realized it finally fit, and I just _—_ I just broke down crying. I should have been able to tell her, to show her how she was right, it had fit me after all that time. I really, really miss her.”

And Keith lets him come closer, pulls him against his side and lets him cry for his family, rubbing soothing circles on his back.

(and lance will ask him later, when everyone else is getting ready to sleep, how come he wasn’t awkward, and keith will tell him honestly, truthfully, that he had missed him too much, trusts him too much, to be awkward about anything.

he doesn’t say love and the words burn where they are left unsaid).

When they get into their lions, the next morning, there is a feeling. Their lions are weak, but at the same time, they’re calling to them, beckoning them closer and closer together. They’re not as drained, they’re almost fully charged, Pidge had told them it was a matter of little time, but no one expected this.

“Everyone else feeling it?” he asks.

“Like we have to form Voltron?” Pidge appears, looking hopeful and small and young.

“Lead the way, team leader.” Lance smiles, and they all converge to form Voltron on his call, and it’s easy and practiced and like something missing is found.

The panel rises on his right and hits him full force, Black practically screaming for him to grab his bayard and put it to use, and he has felt it before, but this time it’s different, this time he needs someone else.

“Guys?” he asks, because he can’t tell who else is necessary.

(that’s a lie. he knows who he needs, can it feel it through the bond, can feel it in his soul, he knows it’s lance, he knows it’s red, but he can’t figure out just _why—_ )

“I feel it too,” Lance speaks up, serious as he pulls out his bayard.

“What do you think it’s about?” he asks, because they’re not fighting, there is no threat, they have just left the planet and their scanners hadn’t picked up anything.

“Only one way to find out.”

They do it at the same time, thanks to the bond they share when forming Voltron. It’s something strong, able to coordinate all of them well enough to operate a giant robot, but it has been stronger between them, since he took Black and Lance Red. It hadn’t been like that when he was in Red and Shiro in Black. There wasn’t a communication so…effortless, between them like it was between him and Lance.

(and he tells himself it’s because they’re a good team and that’s that. there is no hidden meaning, no other reason. he’s the leader and lance is the right hand and they _work_ together, and that is all. and then there is a feeling on his back, a tingle and warmth and suddenly he’s as light as the wind, suddenly he feels like could _fly_ ).

The wings are a surprise.

The speed is even a bigger surprise.

(they are traveling so fast they can’t even speak, it’s like a thousand pounds blanket covering them until they can barely breathe, and they’re stuck to their seats, to the floor, there is nothing but speed and the blur of the galaxies passing by, and it could be a minute, it could be an hour, it could be years for all they know, faster and faster until suddenly it’s not).

“Where are we?” is the first thing anyone asks once they stop, and it’s Romelle, pipping up from Red.

“I…think we’re closer than ever. My guess is we’re near Andromeda,” Pidge says, and they can hear her tapping screens and buttons from Green, probably scanning constellations.

“What?! But that’s, like, the closest galaxy that’s not orbiting the Milky Way. We’re, what, 2.5 million light years away?” Lance yells. He can hear Pidge falter, and it’s her fault for forgetting that Lance is a goddamn pilot of the Galaxy Garrison, that the man in Red had dreamed of touching the stars since he was a child, that Lance was the kid that, when his first grade class had to talk about the solar system, got up and walked to the front with a presentation five time the size of everyone else’s and a hundred different stars hand-painted by him.

“Yeah, give or take, which means we’re _so_ close.”

(they’re not, not really. close is seeing earth, close is feeling the sun against their skin, close is smelling home. but when there are years of travelling that they crossed in so little time…yeah, they’re _close_ ).

They contact Earth when they are just nearing the Milky Way. They’re not traveling as fast as before, but it’s still faster than the Lions by themselves, and the energy that they need for that is too much to have a big range for communications, so they’ve been slowing down to get a better signal.

“This is Katie Holt, Paladin of the Green Lion of Voltron, hailing the Galaxy Garrison, do you copy?” Pidge tries, like she has been doing once every ten minutes for the past two hours.

  
“This is the Galaxy Garrison, we copy,” a male voice answers.

There are shouts from all the Lions then. Keith thinks he can hear Hunk crying.

“I need to speak to my father, Commander Samuel Holt,” Pidge requests, and she opens the frequency to Keith, but he keeps quiet.

“Right away, please hold on.”

“Holy shit! Pidge, Pidge, ask if they can get my sister on, Verónica Álvarez,” Lance pleads, and Pidge nods.

“Galaxy Garrison? Can you put Verónica Álvarez on?”

“It’s almost 5 am here, and also a Sunday, so you’ll have to wait for a little while, but yeah, I can get Vero on,” the man chuckles. There are a few seconds of silence form his end.

“I think he’s Curtis. He was on Adam’s team when we were cadets,” Shiro says from behind him, where he had been talking with Krolia.

“Galaxy Garrison, is Officer Adam Wright around?” Keith asks, despite the silent protests of Shiro behind him.

“On it. He’s a Lieutenant now, actually.”

“You’re grounded,” Shiro deadpans, and Keith has the nerve to chuckle.

“No, I’m not.”

There are a few minutes of silence after that, and he can see Pidge checking their connection with one hand and calculating their time of arrival with the other.

“Okay, here is Commander Holt. We can’t get a hold of Verónica or Adam, but we’ll keep trying, see if they wake up,” Curtis says, and then there is shuffling before another voice comes in.

“Katie? Katie, is that you?”

“Dad! Dad, we’re like, half an hour away, _please_ don’t shoot us down!” Pidge laughs.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re alright, Katie, your mother and I were so worried!”

“Is…is she there?” and Pidge sounds small, so small and young and Keith can understand, now, what a mother means.

(krolia puts a hand on his shoulder, gives him a look he has come to understand means she’s keeping her promise, she’s staying, and nothing and no one will rip her away from him, because she had left to keep him safe and now she can keep him safe by his side and she’s not going anywhere, not again, not ever, because she loves him, she always has, even when he didn’t believe his dad, even when he doubted she ever did).

  
“I’m here. I’m here, Katie.”

“Mom!”

Keith turns it off then. That’s something Pidge’s alone.

They touch down on Garrison ground at sunrise, hundreds of feet tall and winged and what wouldn't Keith give to see the look on Iverson's face when he sees Voltron on his fucking parking lot.

The lions separate with a blinding light, and Keith takes a deep breath.

"You ready?" Shiro asks from behind him, his one arm on his shoulder.

"Are you?" He asks, because he truly needs to know. There is nothing for him down there, except maybe what passes for an ex brother in law he abandoned three years ago without warning, and he's come to grips with it, he has his mom and his brother behind him, has a badass wolf...somewhere..., and he's come to accept his place in Voltron now.

"No. But I don't think I'll ever be, so let's do this." Shiro pats his shoulder and waits until he stands up to follow him.

They walk down slowly, helmets held under their arms, and for the first time in years, they breathe in the desert air that surrounds the Garrison. Keith can feel his team coming closer, paladins first in line and Coran, Krolia and Romelle behind them.

There are people waiting for them, and all professionalism goes out of the window the moment a woman cries out a "Katie!" that has Pidge running up towards her mother.

Colleen Holt throws herself forward, wraps her arms around her daughter and lets herself fall to the ground.

(and it’s exactly what he once saw on the whale, down to the way pidge uses her jetpack to get there faster, the way she lets out a teary laugh, the way her helmets hits the ground and lands at allura’s feet).

"Lance?" a voice comes from even farther back, and Keith can feel Lance perk up from his right where he had placed himself.

"Verónica?!" Lance asks, and then a woman comes forward, brown haired and wearing glasses and with the same blue eyes the man on his side has, slightly different from the picture Lance had shown him, but still _—_ "VERÓNICA!" Lance yells, starting to run towards his older sister.

They crash in the middle, and Lance takes her by the waist and twirls her around, and when he falls to his knees, Keith can see he's sobbing into her shoulder.

"Aww man, now I want my moms to be here," he hears Hunk say. Keith puts a hand on his shoulder, opens his mouth to offer whatever words he can get out, but it gets drowned by the commotion coming from the crowd, where people are being shoved to make way from someone.

Keith thinks he knows the hair, but it gets confirmed when the man makes the way to the front, looks up and chokes out a broken "Takashi" as he freezes on the spot.

"Adam," Shiro whispers from his side, and Keith looks to the side to see Shiro also frozen.

"Go," he says, giving him a little shove with the hand he doesn’t have on Hunk. Shiro looks back at him for a second before he's shaking his head and power walking to Adam, who seems to come back to his senses enough to start walking too. They meet, a good two feet between them, voices too low for Keith to hear from where he is, but then Adam is shortening the distance, making a jump with practiced ease and curling his legs around Shiro's waist. Shiro's one good arm comes to support his weight, and they're talking and crying and laughing, shaking head and dropping kisses to wherever they can reach, Adam's glasses bumping into Shiro's nose more than once.

(they weren’t a physical couple, when he had stayed with them, but there had been the little things, like the way adam handed shiro his coffee in the mornings and the way shiro covered him with a blanket when adam fell asleep grading papers.

and then they had fought, and the kerberos mission had failed, and adam had spent days crying in his room, clutching the ring he had never given back to shiro, and keith had seen the world crumble around him and snapped and gotten kicked out.

and adam had picked himself up and looked after him).

When their lips finally meet, Lance has already pulled away from his sister, whistling and shouting "Alright, Shiro!".

And Keith was distracted but he hasn’t forgotten, so he turns to Hunk and tries for a comforting smile.

"You'll see your family in no time," he says, and then lets out a yelp when something tugs him into a hug.

“You demon child, how dare you leave like that,” a voice says from somewhere above him, where he is buried against a shoulder.

“Hi, Adam,” Keith says, and he closes his eyes to enjoy the hug while it lasts.

  
“No note! Not a warning!” Adam hits his arm with each phrase, pulling away to glare at him. There it was. “I come to see you like every weekend and what do I find? Nothing!” Adam cuffs him in the back of the head, and Keith would have yelled at him, three years ago, but now that he has been so long away from him, he finds he can’t do it.

  
“I missed you, Adam,” he says instead, and goes back to the hug.

They have a debrief, and god, the faces of the officials when he introduces his mother to them, when they shake hands with Allura and Coran and Romelle.

They talk of the war, they warn of how the Galra Empire has been close two times already, and with Voltron out of the picture for almost six months, it’s only a matter of time before they come.

So they get to work.

The Galaxy Garrison, that is.

They are given time with their families.

(and keith can see the way verónica and lance haven’t let go, the way adam keeps starng at shiro like he’s not real, the way colleen pats pidge’s hair, the way she fusses over her and kisses her face and cries a little, the way hunk taps his fingers and his leg and bites his nails, eager to get out there in yellow and fly all the way to samoa in less than a minute to see his family again, and keith thinks they deserve it).

“Hey, so…What are you doing, now?” Lance approaches him after the meeting, Verónica just a couple of steps behind him talking with Allura and Romelle.

“I don’t know. I was going to take Krolia to see my dad’s grave, and after that…I don’t know, back to the shack, I guess. I want to give Adam and Shiro some time.” He shrugs and looks down at Kosmo, hands on his pockets.

“I’m taking Allura and Romelle back home. If…if you both want to come with us,” Lance says, and Keith looks up, surprised, and a little hopeful.

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“I’m offering! C’mon, my mom is going to love you. She has five kids, what are three more? And Krolia is more than welcome!”

And Lance is offering his hand, eyes wide and blue and so earnest he can't tell him no.

(he can't, because he wants that, wants to wake up near him again, to see him in the morning, eating with bleary eyes and slow motions, wants to see him chug coffee, real coffee instead of the next best thing they found on a planet near the kuuibaz nebula. he wants, wants, wants, wishes he could be selfish and forget about allura being there too, could think this is an offer lance makes to him, to keith, because he wants him there, specially him, and not because he has a heart too big for his chest and a family he gets it from).

But there are things that are beyond him, so he looks to the side, looks at his mom and knows he can't part away from her, not when they found each other again, not when they are back on Earth and she has things to do.

"I won't leave you again," Krolia promises, hand on his shoulder, and Keith turns back to Lance to nod, the beginnings of a smile already forming when Lance shouts and takes him by the waist to spin around.

"Lance, put me down!"

"You're going to love it! You will, Keith, I just know it, you'll love the sea and the beach and my family is going to adopt you so hard, you too Krolia, my Abuela is going to love you!"

And he keeps blabbering, keeps talking about the food and the places and all the things they'll do until Keith puts a hand on his face to stop him from talking so much.


	2. Chapter 2

He goes to a few more meetings before they let him go, long after the others have gone home. Krolia and he spend the night in a Garrison dorm, and then they set off as soon as the sun rises. 

(they’re in the middle of a meeting before a man comes rushing in, breathless, saying _Matthew Holt is calling his father_ , and pidge and sam had jumped up, joined colleen where she was already in the hallway, and that had been the last he had seen of pidge. he’s pretty sure matt is arriving somewhere in the week. damn him for being close to olkarion)

The shack is still standing, and the things he had left in the little fridge in the corner are gone, probably thanks to Adam. His clothes and his boots are too little on him now, and there isn’t much he has left now, after foster families and group homes.

His mother stands outside and looks at the place where the house once stood, where he had been born and raised until his dad died.

“He didn’t die here. It was some other fire. They told him not to go back, but…well,” he huffs, acutely aware he was pretty much like his Pop in that sense “When I was old enough to find my way back here, the house was gone.”

“I always thought it would be here when I came back. The house, the tree outside with the swing, the creaky step on the stairs…him…you.”

He stands closer and lets her put her arm around him.

They go to the grave in uniform. He probably wouldn't have liked it, he used to get rid of his own as soon as he crossed the threshold, but it's as close as Keith will ever get to saying "Hey Dad, I made it". Krolia is on a Blade's uniform she’d gotten on one of the bases they visited on their journey, had finally gotten rid of the Galra Empire armor she had been using since Keith had gotten them out of that ship, a million years ago.

(and thank the stars for the stretch technology space had, otherwise he would have been very uncomfortable after the growth spurt he got on the space whale, and all the muscle he got with krolia’s exercises from _hell_ ).

"He loved you a lot, you know?" Keith starts after a while in silence, because it's as good of a moment as any other and if he doesn't say it now, he never will.

(they talked a lot on the whale, there wasn't much else to do, and they talked about it, he got to ask why why why. but having dad's grave before them, it makes sense to keith to talk about it, to make his point. he understands now, mom, i forgive you, i know you never meant to leave but it still fucked me up, ten years old me didn't understand, couldn't even imagine it and it hurt him more than i let you know, more than you saw--).

"I know. I love him, too," Krolia says, tracing his father's name on the gravestone.

"He never talked bad about you. He always made it sound like you left to protect us, that you had no choice, but... I never expected it to be so literal."

"Your father found little use of lies. He was always honest with me, and I with him."

They're quiet as he tries to find the courage to say it. Krolia waits for it.

"You would have outlived him anyways, wouldn't you?"

"...yes, I suppose I would have." And she sounds defeated, like it's something she has come to terms with, even if it hurts her.

"...you'll probably outlive me, too." And there's it, and it terrifies him.

(it scares him how much of her he got that he still doesn't know about. his hair grows like hers and his eyes look like hers when the light hits him just right, and he likes his pseudo-coffee just like she does, and he's terrified he has her lifespan)

"We don't have to talk about it." And she sounds so sad, so defeated, he kneels beside her and hugs her.

He barely remembers his father's hugs. He thinks he felt safe in them, but after over 10 years, it's hard for him to really remember him.

But his mother's hugs are precious, and he feels safe when he hides his face on her neck or chest, where she's warm and soft and smells like something he shouldn't remember but does anyway.

"I love you, Mom," he says, for the first time in his life, and it feels freeing.

(there are tears on his eyes, and he had wished so hard for this very moment as a child, for his mom to come back, to take him from those group homes and into a real home, where he was loved and cared for and wanted).

"I love you too, Keith," she whispers, her claws running through his hair, careful and slow, and it brings new tears out of his eyes.

They take a pod to Florida, because he’s not sure Lance family’s backyard has space for both Black and Red.

(there is. there’s so much space, especially now it’s nearing winter and the fields don’t have much growing on them. how did he miss lance’s parents having so much land? no wonder lance got restless, he had a gigantic backyard)

The whole family is out there, and Lance is waiting for them when they exit.

“Everything okay with the trip here?” Lance asks the moment Keith stops in front of him, taking his hand and offering a hug.

“I mean, it’s no Altean scape pod, but it’s familiar.” Keith smiles, and Lance laughs out loud.

“What the hell are you doing in your armor?”

“…I don’t have any more clothes.”

“Alright, we’ll find something that fits you. Now c’mon, guys, I want you to meet my family.” Lance throws his arm around Keith’s shoulders and leads them to his family.

(and his heart is beating fast, and his eyes find allura and romelle easily, wearing earth clothes that must be lance’s sisters’, and there are no bags under their eyes, and allura looks younger than ever, comfortable, with her hair down and _sneakers_ on her feet, so human if it wasn’t for her pointy ears).

“Family, this is Keith and his mother Krolia. Keith, you probably know who is who, but I’ll give you a run down again. Luis, wife Lisa, kids Nadia and Silvio, Mom and Dad, Marco, Verónica you already met, kinda, and the troll over there is Rachel. My grandma is coming over in a few days.” Lance doesn’t mention his grandpa and Keith doesn’t question it. They had been gone long enough.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he says over the sound of Lance arguing their faces are _not_ the same, Rachel, _thank you very much_ , taking the hand Lance’s father offers, and then being tugged into a hug from Lance’s mother, topped off by the press of her cheek on his and the sound of a kiss.

“Lance has told us so much about you!” she says when she pulls away, smiling at him and letting her hands rest on his shoulders, frowning when she sees what he’s wearing. “We’ll find you clothes, you’re just like the Princess, wearing armor”

He looks to Allura then, looks at the way she’s smiling after only a day and a half, the way she’s relaxed, and then back to Lance’s mother.

“That would be great.”

(once upon a time, he was the black paladin to allura’s princess. once upon a time, allura leaned on him a bit like he leaned on lance. once upon a time, keith and allura learned how to read each other almost as well as keith and lance).

They’ve arrived just for lunch, two days after arriving on Earth, and still Keith can’t believe there’s rice in front of him, and black beans, not magenta, and actual, real chicken, and actual, real potatoes, because c’mon, the things they served at the Garrison couldn’t pass for real potatoes at all.

“Here you go, you caffeine addict,” Lance says when he’s helping his mom serve the plates, and he places a can of Pepsi on the table in front of him.

(they’re the defenders of the universe. on a good phoebe, they only fight twice a movement. they’ve killed, they’ve been hurt so bad they’ve spent a whole movement on a pod.

they all get placed in the kiddie table anyway. allura, princess of a whole planet, capable of flipping a grown altean-galran hybrid without even getting a hair out of place, sits by nadia and talks to her with a smile).

“Ohmyfuckinggod,” he says as he reaches for it, opening it with a _hiss_ and slurping at the little that spilled.

“Language,” Lance sing-songs, and Keith cringes to him when he notices Luis’ kids looking at him.

(once, lance had—probably?—cursed for two minutes straight in spanish. pidge had timed it. they weren’t sure what everything he had said meant but based on the angry curl of his mouth and the way he had kicked the sentry that had drawn blood from hunk, yeah, it was curse words).

“Sorry.”

“My uncle Lance said you have a wolf now, like the princess has the mice. Where is he?” Silvio asks once they’re all seated, and Keith blinks once before he answers.

“I’m not sure. He must be around here, actually. You want to meet him after you finish your meal?” Silvio nods and goes back to his food.

“Is it true you’re a space ninja?” Nadia asks, and he sees Allura stifle a laugh beside her.

“That’s just what Lance calls it. It’s an organization called Blade of Marmora.” He sees his mother perk up at that and throw him a look over her shoulder. She’s wearing normal clothes, and she looks at ease, like she belongs on Earth more than she did on space.

(he remembers the way she looked when she was living with his father. he remembers the way her face had looked like when she had looked at the desert stars and said she had seen enough war for more than a lifetime. He remembers the way she had looked like, the way her eyes had shone and her smile had widened, the day she had told his father she was expecting, that she wanted to stay with him and form a family, even if they had to hide, came what may, she was standing by his side and she never wanted to leave).

“And do you have a Blade?”

“He’ll show you later, Nadia. No weapons while we eat,” Allura says, and Nadia nods.

(it’s funny how he knows things about nadia even without knowing her face, because once lance had mentioned his niece had a princess phase she had yet to grow out of, he had said her favorite color was turquoise and that she liked to place bows on his hair and tell him he was the prettiest pilot on the whole world).

“No mission reports while we eat,” Lance says in a British accent, and when he smiles in Keith’s way, he decides to join in.

“No planet reports, either.”

“No meetings reports.”

“No debriefing.”

“No—"

“Alright, I got it!” Allura huffs, banging her hands on the table just soft enough not to scare anyone.

(they all jump with loud noises. lance once cried, even without meaning, had vaulted over to the other side of the room and taken keith down, covered his head and pulled him under his body. shiro dove under a table, hand glowing, and almost cut off coran’s hand when he tried to draw him out).

He shows Kosmo to the kids, summoning him with a whistle and then leaves them to play with a little warning that yes, he was nice, no, he wasn’t a dog, even if he had basically trained him like one.

When he gets inside, Lance is sitting beside his mother, leaning on her and letting her pat his head where it rests on her shoulder. He has Nadia on his lap, and she’s gripping the collar of his t-shirt as she too watches the tv.

It's odd, to see Lance home. He’s only seen him for less than three hours, but there is something about him, something deep inside Keith couldn't quite put his finger in but is sure has to do with a homesickness that no longer drags him down. There is a longing in his chest that had been eradicated the moment they touched down on Earth.

But at the same time, Lance is still the same as he has been all this time. When he eats, he still talks and talks and laughs, he puts his arm around his sisters and brothers like did with Pidge and Hunk back in the castle. Lance is still himself, but a little happier, a little looser.

(keith had been maybe 12 the time he got pneumonia. it wasn't the fever that ticked his foster parents that something was wrong— kids got fevers all the time, rest enough, give them liquids and it would pass. it wasn't his cough, either— kids got the flu all the time, it wasn't weird for him to be sick in the middle of winter.

it was that it hurt to breathe too deeply. he could still breathe, short and fast, getting air in his lungs but not moving his chest too much. if he put too much air into his lungs, he had to stop breathing because there was a sharp pain on his side, piercing him, taking his breath away. it took maybe a day for Keith to admit to it, that filling his lungs with air was like getting stabbed.

ant then he got better, and he hadn't realized how much he had missed taking deep breaths until the doctor asked for him to do it and he had filled his lungs and realized it didn't hurt anymore.

watching lance is like watching him breathe after two years of pneumonia pain).

At nighttime, after Luis, Lisa, the kids and Marco have left with promises of returning the next day, Lance leads Krolia to the small guest room they got and leaves her to get ready after telling her the best hours to shower.

“Allura and Romelle are staying in Marco’s room, so you’ll have to stay with me. Hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s not the first time we’ve shared a room.” Keith shrugs, and that seems to put Lance at ease.

“You’ll get the bed cause you’re the guest—"

“It’s been over two years since you’ve slept in that bed. I’m not taking shit, Lance,” Keith says as Lance opens the door to his childhood bedroom, and it’s exactly as Keith imagined it would be, Garrison posters and plastic stars and pictures at the beach included. 

“Too late!” Lance jumps to the air mattress that’s been placed beside the bed, and Keith is left on the doorstep trying not to smile.

(hey keith, lance whispers when keith's falling asleep, on the air mattress because lance only wishes he was as good at wrestling as keith is, just like keith wishes he had lance’s marksmanship.

yeah? he says, basically asleep already because c’mon lance this is the first time in so many years he’s gone to bed full with familiar food.

i’m really glad you came here, lance whispers, and then keith falls asleep before he can answer, but maybe that’s good, otherwise he might have said something embarrassing like of course i came, i love you).

Keith wakes with the sun, and lays there for a few more minutes, watching the way the sun shines on Lance’s face and turns his hair golden and casts shadows where his lashes rest.

Then there’s an alarm somewhere on the house, and Lance is jumping up and grabbing his hand and tugging him up, somehow more awake than when the attack alarm blared on the castle.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, Mullet, would you hurry?”

“Lance, what the fuck is happening?” Keith asks, acutely aware he’s just wearing his boxers while Lance’s wearing pajamas because it was _hot_ , alright? A different kind of hot that the desert had been. The desert hadn’t been hot on nights.

“We’re going to – NO YOU DON’T, YOU WHORE!” Lance screeches, gives one good tug to Keith’s arm to get him into a room and closes the door on Verónica’s face.

“Lance, what the hell! I always call first shower!”

“You snooze, you loose, sis!” Lance crackles where he’s leaning against the door, and when he turns to Keith, he’s smiling.

“Alright, I got you first shower. Grab any of the towels on that cabinet and don’t lose it. Pretty much everyone else has color coded, so no worries there. Use whatever is on the shower. You have maybe fifteen minutes before Vero is knocking on the door. Now enjoy, I go to sleep now.” Lance exists the bathroom and leaves Keith gaping at the door.

What had just happened?

He changes into clothing Lance left at the edge of the mattress, looking at the red flip-flops and passing them, going instead for the shoes they had given him the day before.

He goes down after shaking Lance awake, but all he gets for his efforts is a few slaps on his face and a grunt.

Krolia is already seated, sipping coffee and talking to Lance’s mom.

“Morning,” he says, sitting and accepting the mug Krolia offers him.

  
“Good morning, Keith!” Lance’s mom smiles as she pills food into his plate.

“Thank you.” He smiles back and starts to eat quietly while his mother and Mrs. McClain talk about human things she missed while she was in space.

Then one by one, others start to appear. First Mr. Álvarez, coming inside with fresh eggs, then Verónica, then Allura and Romelle.

He’s just finished his second serving, because Mrs. McClain’s scrambled eggs are _heavenly_ , when they hear thunderous steps above them.

“LANCE?! LEANDRO?!” he hears, the sound of a door opening and then a second set of footsteps, Lance’s voice saying something too low for him to understand, and then silence.

When he looks around, everyone is somber.

“Rachel thinks it’s all a dream. It happened yesterday, too.” Allura explains when she sees his face, her hands curling around her cup of tea.

(the silence is only broken when the twins come down, rachel tucked under lance’s arm, both still in their pajamas and with tears on their faces, and mrs mcclain gives them a pass for eating breakfast on their pajamas. lance cracks a joke and he can see the way his parent’s shoulders relax).

(beach day, lance says, and verónica and rachel knock their coffee back at the same time and lead the aliens ladies to find bathing suits while lance grins at him and leads him to his room).

While Keith would have expected Lance to come out in those t-shirts with sleeves holes so big you could see his waist to match the blue shorts, flipflops and shades he carried with him, he comes out instead with a black form fitting rash guard.

He must see something on his face, because he puts up his glasses and tries to give him a smile, but it comes out a little sad.

"I...don't really want to show them my back." He shrugs, and Keith is painfully reminded of their first month on space, when Lance had protected Coran and now had a big, spidery scar on his back to show for it.

(he remembers taking lance into his arms, growling to shiro when he had tried to take him away. he remembers a hole where his stomach was supposed to sit, now just a pit where it never landed, and the way his hands had shook when lance had lost consciousness again still holding his hand.

he remembers the wait. he remembers wanting to hold lance close and check everywhere for anything wrong.

he remembers the way his voice had cracked when lance had denied their bonding moment).

"Should I cover up, too?" Keith asks, now fully aware of the scars that litter his arms and parts on his chest, of the scar on his shoulder from his Trials, of the one on the small of his back from a stab wound that would have left him unable to walk if not for the pods.

"Nah, you don't have to. Only if you don’t feel comfortable.”

The beach is hot, despite it nearing winter. They claim a big spot for all of them, _all_ of the Álvarez, and then they sit and everyone applies sunscreen.

(alright, but do alteans need it?, rachel asks, and lance answers he’ll be damned if he has to explain to coran why the princess of altea has skin cancer, so sunscreen it is. keith agrees).

They’re just finishing up when Lance sees a few teenagers playing volleyball and turns to Keith with a grin.

“Please tell me you were good in all sports.”

“I never tried golf,” Keith deadpans, but accepts his hand when he offers it and lets him pull him to his feet.

They _destroy_ them, because the Álvarez are vicious and Keith fits _right in_.

(and maybe they lose a point because he gets distracted looking at the way lance’s body curved when he went to attack, the way the muscles on his back flexed when he raised his hand and brought it down, the way he fell down with grace and flicked his hair away, and then he turned to him, smiling, and keith smiled right back and then there was a bit of sand on his feet from where the ball fell right before him and lance was laughing at him, warmth in his eyes, and keith blushed a bit and prayed it could pass off as the beginnings of a sunburn.

then luis served and verónica attacked and it was back to the game). 

They let go like they haven’t in a long time. They chase each other, they laugh, they mock fight. Keith puts Allura on his shoulders and Lance gets Romelle and they try to get the other down only to get pushed down, all four of them, by Rachel on Marco’s shoulders.

After hours and with his hair still wet from the last time Lance threw water to him, Keith lets himself fall on the sand and sits to look at the sky. They‘re going to get going as soon as the sun sets, and he had missed that, just watching the sun disappear into the horizon until the next day. It had been peaceful in the desert and it was proving to be peaceful here in the beach too, with the sound of the waves and the feeling of the wind on his hair, and then the warmth from Lance when he goes and sits down beside him.

Along the shore in front of them, Allura and Romelle are playing with Rachel, stopping every few seconds to see seashells and other things they find. Behind them, Krolia is talking with Nadia, letting her trace the markings on her face like Keith had seen he himself did as a baby. Everyone is safe and happy, and it helps something settle on his chest.

“Allura is getting close to Romelle, isn’t she?” he comments when he sees the exited way Romelle presents a sea shell to Allura, and the way Allura smiles back at Romelle.

“They have a lot in common,” Lance says and leaves it that. He thinks Lance has always known more things about the team than they knew about him.

(and he remembers romelle's eyes, shinning and treating to overflow with tears as she talked about how now she knew her parents were as dead as bandor, how she always had this tiny hope, small among the questions but there, and now she didn't, and he can see allura's face behind his eyelids the moment she realizes ten thousand years had passed, the way her cries sometimes echoed in the empty halls of the castle, how she had to destroy the last piece of her father's memories and how she had absolutely nothing from her mother except a handful of images and her memories).

"You're different now, you know?” Lance says suddenly, and Keith raises his eyebrows on his direction “It's not bad! You just...you're not so reckless. You're...softer? That’s not the word"

"Two years on a whale is a long time to think," he says, leaning back on his hands. The sand under his legs is not as warm as it was when they had arrived, but it’s still soft.

"What did you think about?" Lance asks, softly, just for them.

"Everything,” he shrugs, tracing figures on the sand. “It helped me build a relationship with my mother. Helped me overcome some things. Seeing her do this for me, coming here with me, it's...it tells me she wants to stay with me. That she wants me, _loves_ me, she's not going to abandon me just because _—_ " Keith stops and shrugs again.

"You know we love you, right? Me, Hunk, Pidge, even Shiro’s evil clone. Not gonna even start with real Shiro. We missed you. A lot." Lance looks at him with wide, earnest eyes, and Keith finds himself smiling. 

"I missed you, too," and it's not a mistake, not saying 'you guys', not saying he missed the team, because he did. He missed Team Voltron, they had become so close in the year they had been fighting, it was almost like he had a family he belonged in, then. But he had missed Lance more. The way he listened to him, their bickering, his support, the way he wasn't afraid to call out his bullshit, the way he rose when Keith fell short. And then, before he can lose the bravery. "I really missed you, Lance."

And the smile Lance gives him is soft, and his eyes shine with the setting sun, his face bathed in the purples and oranges they couldn't find anywhere else in the universe, and Keith falls in love just a bit more.

(he thinks he could live his whole life between the setting sun and lance’s eyes).

He inches his hand closer to Lance’s. It’s hesitant, but he does it anyway, and Lance doesn’t pull away. Keith lets his pinky touch Lance’s, heart beating hard on his chest, and then suddenly Lance is taking his hand and pulling him to his side, passing an arm around his shoulders and letting him fall against him.

They stay like that until it gets too dark.

(and he doesn’t want to hope, because maybe it’s not like that, maybe lance thinks that’s something friends do, and maybe he would never notice the way keith’s heart beats on his chest a mile a second, the way it would always beat for him, no matter what keith does, because he tried once and it got him nowhere except right where he was right now, head over heels, heels over head and head over heels again, completely shaken and with his blood singing for lance).

He wakes before Lance the next day, and when he checks his space phone, there’s a text from Shiro.

_Brogane #1_ : The Garrison is making uniforms. Black or red?

And Keith looks at Lance sleeping beside him, thinks of the way he had looked like surrounded by the ocean, of the way he had laughed with the sun on his face and the way he had laid in the sand and the way he had looked at him with his impossible blue eyes, and he thinks of Allura, of the way she had played with her hands when she said “Alteans wear pink to honor the dead” and how all her armor had always been pink, of how she had honored her people on battle.

(how he has seen her with tears in her eyes, standing over a body and wiping blood from her face, has seen her raise her head and look at all of them and say “it’s over” and god does he want that, need to know she gets to have her revenge, gets to be at peace, gets to live, because he can’t think of the future where she gets a statue and they get none of her).

_Brogane #2_ : black was always your color.

_Brogane #1_ : Can I call you?

So he dresses and steps outside of the house and calls his brother, and he talks to him leaning on the porch railing.

(and things are not perfect, shiro says, but they are making progress and maybe it won’t be a castle but a ship is coming together, altean and human, and he looks his actual age for the first time in years, he looks like he’s at peace, and adam is humming on the background and he can hear soft japanese that means he went to see his parents, the ones who thought he had died alone in kerberos, so maybe things are not perfect, but they’re as close as they would get).

Lance comes out as he’s hanging up and offers him a cup of coffee when he leans beside him.

“Was that Shiro?”

“Yeah. He says Coran, Pidge and Sam are working non-stop, and it might not be that long before they get something up and running,” he takes a sip of the coffee and watches as Lance takes a deep breath, looks around to the fields that extend over a small hill where the barn is places, watches him drink in his home and let out his breath.

“Hopefully not that short, either.”

“Yeah. Have you talked to Hunk and Pidge?” he curls his hands around the cup, looking at the dark brown and realizing now they can get coffee on space, if they want to. They can get all the things they loved when they leave this time.

“Yesterday. They’re pretty okay. Is it weird that I miss them?” and Lance kind of bends into himself, shoulders to his ears, so Keith puts a hand on his arm. 

“Of course not. I miss them too,” and Lance smiles at him, soft around the edges, and leans a little on the hand. There is a second when neither does anything, and then Keith is holding his breath and Lance is looking down, at his lips, and he doesn’t notice who leans but suddenly they’re less than an inch away, just there, waiting and waiting and his heart is beating so hard it’s basically the only thing he can hear, but at the same time he feels like this is right, this is where he belongs, right beside Lance, close and even closer, and if he just closed the distance himself—

(and is he imagining it? is this real? is this one of the perfects futures he saw on the whale, where the war ends and no one dies and they get to be happy?).

“Paladins!” Allura’s voice makes them spring apart, and Keith clears his throat when she comes out of the house with Krolia behind her. “Perfect, you’re wearing comfortable clothes. I gave you time to wind down, but don’t think we can just go forgo training.”

“Are you kidding?!” Lance groans, letting his head thud on the railing.  
  


“I’m as serious as a heart failure,” Allura says, and Keith has to hide his smile behind his mug.

“C’mon, Blue Paladin, we can keep training you with the Altean broadsword.” Krolia grabs Lance by the shoulder, his bayard on her hand, and leads him to an open space in the backyard as he tells her she can call him Lance.

“I thought we could spar. It’s been a while since the last time I had a worthy opponent,” Allura says, because they hadn’t really trained while traveling, not without the Lions, and Keith smiles to her.

“Sure.”

So they train, because Keith might love Lance even if Lance loves Allura, but he would never blame her, he would never hate her when she’s part of the family he built for himself on space, when she was able to look past the fact he was part of the race that killed her family and planet and accepted him for who he was.

Allura has just pinned him down, hand to his throat and the other twisting his arm behind his head, when Krolia calls to him.  
  


“I think you should practice with Lance. Use your bayards. I’ll take the princess.” And the grin they share makes him want to stay away from what they can get up to, so he picks up the bayard from were Allura tossed it and waits until it transforms.

“I have to say, I’m kinda jealous you get three forms and the rest of us get one,” he says as he approaches Lance.

“I mean, Allura kinda gets two? She can use a whip and a kinda sword?” Lance spins the sword around before dropping a little lower and yeah, it shouldn’t but it does _things_ to Keith, seeing Lance like that.

“But that’s from the same base bayard! You went from a _rifle_ to a _sword._ ” He raises his bayard and waits until Lance takes the first step.

And from then on they fight, and Keith can see the way Lance is getting better, getting _good_ at this. He used to be a long-ranged fighter, perched on somewhere high he could protect all of them, but he now he can put up a fight up close.

After a few times he beats Lance, he manages to get Keith’s feet form under him and straddles his waist, using his sword to push Keith’s closer and closer, waiting for him to stop blocking him.

“You gonna take _samurai_ from me, Sharpshooter?” Keith asks, panting, grinning, and Lance is just the same, the longer strands of his hair sticking to the apple of his cheeks.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Lance leans a bit away, and Keith uses that to flip them, the tip of his sword to Lance’s chest and his other hand making sure Lance stays down.

“I win,” he announces, but Lance is still grinning.

“You sure about that?” Keith looks down and sees that Lance has his blaster aimed at his ribs, just below his chest, and _when did that happen?_

“You little—” Keith starts, but is interrupted by Mrs. McClain hollering from the house something to Lance, and Lance blushes before looking at Keith.

“My mom says we have to wash up and go eat breakfast. She’s kinda mad it’s beyond cold now.”

“Oh. Oh!” Keith gets off from Lance and stands, clearing his throat and offering him a hand he takes.

“C’mon. Allura and Krolia already ate, and to be honest I don’t want to get in the middle of that.”

Keith turns just in time to see Krolia throw Allura ten feet away and yeah, nope, getting out of there now.

(rachel is there when they get down, scrolling on her phone with her feet on the chair beside hers, and she takes one look at them and wiggles her eyebrows, saying something in spanish that makes lance roll his eyes and push her face away, and keith blushes when she turns to him and winks).

It’s after dinner, before it even gets dark, when Rachel drops to where they’re lounging on the living room. Allura is going over some plans and schematics Coran sent her way while Romelle entertains Silvio and Nadia with some tales from the colony, and Keith is reading a book he found on Lance’s room leaning on his legs as he changes channels every few seconds.

“Oye, bro,” Rachel starts, and Keith tries to drown them out when he hears the Spanish, because not only he can’t understand it, he also knows that they use that when what they say is not for the others. They _always_ speak English when they want to talk to him or the Alteans.

“Qué,” Lance answers without even looking at her.

“La Abuela llega mañana y no nos vamos a poder escapar. ¿Eleven’s a las 10? Luis nos lleva y nos trae.”

"Ño, de madre, Rachel. Te amo. Eres mi favorita," Lance kisses his sister's cheek with a big 'mua!', turning to Keith, Allura and Romelle in a way that's downright giddy.

"What's going on?" Romelle asks, and follows them when Lance grabs Allura and Keith's hands.

"We're going clubbing! Our grandma arrives tomorrow, so my brother is driving us today."

Allura, Keith and Lance change all together while Romelle takes the bathroom, because after so much time fighting together, changing against the clock on the locker room as the siren blasted ahead, after washing clothes whenever they could on their trip back to Earth...seeing other people on their team in their underwear is the least of their concerns.

And maybe it’s because he’d never stepped one single toe on a night club, but Keith had always thought the outfits were things flashy and see-through, but instead they wear normal clothes, and Lance looks good on a tight white v-neck and skinny jeans.

“Lance, aren’t those pants too tight?” Allura asks, even if hers are not any looser.

Lance drops to a squat, moves his hips side to side and says “Nope.”

Rachel comes in then and puts Allura's hair on a high ponytail not unlike her own, citing heat and sweat as reasons for not having their down, while Romelle just lets her hair as usual. There is a bit of a fight, but then Keith's hair is also on a small ponytail that leaves his neck oddly naked.

"Now the paint." Rachel grins, pulling out little tubes of neon face pain from her make up bag. "Romelle, Allura, you guys are going to have to get it, yes or yes"

"Why?" Allura asks, already standing up. "Not that I'm opposed to make up."

"We're going to have to pass off your marking as paint. I mean, you could also say they're tattoos if anyone asks, but this way maybe they won't ask."

So they put dots on the sides of their markings and paint their eyes, and Lance asks to get markings too, so Rachel puts markings like Romelle’s on his cheekbones. Everyone else gets dots on a line on their cheekbones.

Verónica is waiting for them downstairs, a single glass on her hand and a bottle of what Keith suspects is rum.

“Alright, drinks are expensive as shit and there’s too many of us, so everyone line up and we’re taking a shot.”

So they do, and Romelle laughs at the way Allura’s nose crunches until it’s her turn, and then Rachel laughs as she knocks it back like water, and Lance is close behind, not even blinking before offering the empty glass to Keith.

(and they’re drank alcohol before, they have. but it’s always on banquets where the drinks are fruity and sweet and not straight and tasting like perfume, so it’s kind of impressive lance can drink that well when he left earth at seventeen. so he asks, and lance shrugs and says the drinks on yheporen were way worse).

They don’t really all fit on the car. Luis and Verónica go on the front, so Rachel sits on Lance’s lap and Romelle on Keith’s and Allura sits on the middle, completely comfortable.

(keith has the suspicion verónica served him at least two fingers more than everyone else, because he, _keith_ , is kind of giggly as he gets down from luis’ car).

They go in and the place is kind of stuffed, the air hot, but they stay close and form a circle where they can dance without having to worry about other people. Rachel and Marco start by showing them some moves, but Keith is more interested in their brother.

Lance looks mesmerizing under the lights. There are bodies all around them, but Keith can't take his eyes off of Lance and the way his shirt shines under the black lights, the way the paint Rachel applied looks like Altean marks but different, more human, just paint that reflects light on his face, none of the shine that Alteans had that came from within, just blue under his eyes and Keith loves him.

He does, and it's not scary at all.

There's a fast song on the speakers now, Spanish, and it must be old enough that Lance and everyone else knows it because half the club is yelling the lyrics, hands in the air, and the way Lance shakes his hips should be illegal, it should, because it's doing things to Keith he can't put into words.

Lance sings something in his direction, but Keith can't make sense of it, only knows that the way he's moving his arms is calling him, drawing him in until he's right in front of Lance and he places his hands on Keith's hips, soft and barely there, just enough so he could shove him off if he wanted.

But he doesn't, and he puts his hands on Lance's shoulders, all the invitation he needs to draw Keith closer, to put a leg between his and move him to the rhythm.

The song changes after some time, but Keith can't difference one from the other, not when Lance is so close, mouthing lyrics against his neck, close to his ear, hovering in the place where his neck meets his shoulder, bared from the big neckline of the shirt he's wearing.

Lance pulls him even closer until Keith is all but riding his tight, and then he starts to slowly lower them to the floor and then back up, hips shaking all the while, chest to chest.

Nothing is innocent about the way their hips move.

He thinks maybe his friends and Lance's family are cat calling, but he can't mind it when Lance is singing, happy and there, alive on Earth.

It's natural, the way his face rises to kiss Lance.

It's soft until it isn't, until their lips are basically fighting, and Lance kisses the way he fights with Keith, coordinated to his movements, lets him take the lead and picks up where he falters.

When they pull away, Lance is smiling, wide and happy and soft and Keith is a goner.

(and keith doesn’t know what to do with all the love he has for lance, but maybe this means now he can show it, now he can take his hand and tell him how much he adores him, how much he adores the earth version of the boy who dreamt of stars and ended up in them, how much he wants to drown in him and the way he smiles, how his love cannot be contained, cannot be expressed, but he can try if he lets him, if he gives him the chance to try and show him just how much he means to him).

Keith would freeze the moment and live it if he could, but the club doesn't give them a rest, and Keith is brought back to the present when someone bumps against his back. He realizes the way they are, with him basically riding Lance's thigh, but before he can even think of being embarrassed, Lance is turning him around and bringing them close again, hands to hips and chest to back.

"Just follow me," Lance whispers against his neck, and Keith does.

They don’t separate much after that. Lance dances a bit with Allura and Romelle, Keith stays on the circle they’ve formed and moves, but he really dances when Lance is guiding him and mouthing words at him and giggling into his neck, and the kisses they share taste like the daiquiri they split only minutes before, and then like cuba libre and then like mojito.

And Keith was once scared, but he can’t when it’s his name Lance says when his eyes shine like oceans and his kisses feel like the stars they shared, like flying Red and breaking a record felt like.

Lance wakes hugging Keith. His head is a bit stuffy, but the night is clearer than most, he knows something changed between them and he’s not sure if Keith remembers but god, does he want it to be permanent. He nuzzles the back of Keith’s head, buries his nose against the hair and breathes in for a few seconds. He wishes he could stay by his side forever, could get to see him wake up and deal with whatever will happen at once.

But his bladder kind of has a mind of his own, so he leaves Keith as quiet as he can and tiptoes to the bathroom on that floor.

He finds Romelle leaning beside the door of the bathroom, head to the wall.

"Hey, Romelle. You okay?" he asks, putting a hand to the back of the girl. He remembers thinking she would have the worst hangover after seeing her and Allura drink mojito after mojito that he was pretty sure they weren’t paying for, but part of him had also thought that Alteans wouldn’t have something as hangovers.

"I want to puke but Rachel is showering," Romelle whines.

"Uhhhh RACHEL WE'RE COMING IN," he hollers as he pulls the doorknob down and out, grateful it's still broken even after so many years, tugging Romelle in.

"WHAT?! GET OUT," his twin hollers back, poking her foam-covered face between the curtain and the wall.

"No can't do! Romelle, c'mere." He takes the Altean by the shoulders and lets her kneel on the floor in front of the toilet. She grippes the sides of the bowl and, after a few seconds, starts throwing up. He rubs her back, pulling her hair away from her face from where it’s fallen.

"Why?" she groans when it finally seems to have stopped.

"There, there." He pats her back, pulling her away and lowering the lid since he can’t use the water while Rachel showers.

"Altean alcohol never betrayed me like this," Romelle moans, leaning against the side of the tub, careful of the curtain.

"Of fucking course it didn't," he mumbles, and he hears Rachel let out a chuckle before a gust of air came in from the open door.

"Lance you're letting off the STEAM I'M FUCKING FREEZING," she screeches.

"BOILING WATER IS BAD FOR YOUR HAIR," he screeches back, things he had told her a thousand times before, but she never seemed to hear.

"YOUR FACE IS BAD FOR YOUR HAIR."

"Please shut up, I'm begging you."

"Sorry, Rom. You’ll be okay." He helps her stand and leads her back to the room, stepping around Allura and her cloud of long hair. “I’ll come back right away with water” Romelle just blinks at him, letting her head fall into her hands.

He goes to the bathroom downstairs before he steps into the kitchen, getting a tray and loading it with water for everyone. He stops first on the couch where Marco is, then on every room, giving water and some pills for whoever needed it.

He skips the Alteans on the medicine, though. Who knows what human medicine could do to them.

He leaves Keith for last, and when he comes into the room, Keith is already dressed and putting on his shoes.

“Hey, did you know Alteans can also puke? I was beginning to thing they were too perfect for it,” he jokes, giving the glass to Keith when he looks up.

“Allura alright?” he asks before starting to take sips of the water as Lance sits beside him.

  
"It was Romelle, actually. Saw her outside the bathroom when I went to pee.” They sit there for a few more seconds in silence as Keith finishes his water and puts the glass on the nightstand.

“Listen, Lance—" Keith says at the same time Lance starts to say “Keith—" so he shuts up and lets Keith go on.

“About last night. It meant something for me, so I need to know we’re in the same page and you don’t want to forget about it.”

“Why would I?” Lance frowns.

“Cause you’re in love with Allura and all of that. Look, I get it, okay? We were kind of drunk and it was—it was the mood of the place, it’s okay, but I really like you—”

“It’s that what you really think?” Lance takes his hand, and Keith stares at it for a second before looking at him.  
  


“Yeah?”

(and lance has loved keith since he saw him break his first record, has loved him for years and from afar and then from so close, and yes allura was beautiful and he had flirted with her, but that was when keith didn’t remember him despite sharing so many classes with him, and even then keith was the moon and the stars, keith was a good leader and someone who _saw_ him, and lance had doubted things in his life but never the way he had felt about him).

He takes a deep breath before he says “Keith, I’m not in love with Allura.”

“You’re not?” and Keith looks surprised, but there is a bit of a flush to his cheek. “I just—you two seemed close on the road, that’s all”

“No. Never really was, I think. And she was…involved, with Lotor. She needed someone to cheer her up. The last thing she needs is someone going after her, she needs to heal by herself. It’s part of why I brought her here, to get her mind off things. She’s, like, the Altean equivalent of nineteen, tops.”

“I think I’m, like, twenty one.”

“I have an ongoing love-hate relation with the Quantum Abyss, you know. It took two years from you, but man, it spat you up _so_ fine.” He wiggles his eyebrows, hoping it will ease some of the tension there is on the air. It kinda works.

“Shut up.” Keith hits him with his shoulder, and Lance laughs before he tugs Keith closer, forearms aligning on his lap. 

“I don’t like Allura like that. Yeah, I liked her. I liked a lot of girls before. But I like guys too. And I especially like this guy. He’s a hotshot pilot, and he used to run head-first into any trouble, and he’s the best partner I could have asked for.” He links their fingers, and Keith looks down before he looks at him.

(keith wants to say i always knew i loved you. he wants to say you i liked the way you challenged me, the way you picked up anything and everything i dished out, you took my hand and told me we were a good team and i was a goner. he wants to say you supported me and i fell hard, i fell so slowly and then all at once i never even had to think about it).

So, instead, he kisses him. He kisses him slowly, softly, no rush; he kisses him like he has always imagined kissing Lance would be like, and Lance kisses him back.

They go down to breakfast hand in hand. Allura screams when she sees them, getting up and knocking her chair down in her haste to throw her arms around them. Krolia smiles over the princess’ shoulder and Keith smiles back.

(mrs. mcclain hugs him and grabs his face in her hands, brings her eyes to his and whispers for him to watch lance’s back like her son is watching his. that’s one of the easiest promises keith ever makes).

Lance calls all of Voltron after breakfast. Hunk is barely awake in Apia, rubbing his eyes, and Shiro is also in his pajamas in Osaka, but Pidge is awake and already on the lab at the Garrison, Coran looking over her shoulder.

They’re all standing on the yard, and Lance’s arms are barely long enough that the four of them can fit in the screen, and they all talk over the others, but it’s familiar and right in a way Keith finds difficult to explain, and at the same time, like the easiest thing in the world. They’re family.

“Guys, guys, guys. Watch this!” he gives the phone to Allura, grabs Keith by the waist and dips him into a kiss.

Keith thinks he hears Pidge scream “fucking _WHAT_!”, but he really can’t care when Lance is holding him and kissing him.

(in a month, the galra will try to attack earth. in a month, the igf-atlas will be ready to launch, powered by the small crystal the castle had become. in a month, lance will kiss keith before battle, will tell him he loves him, and they’ll stop an invasion and then they’ll stop the war.

in a year, allura is going to stand with tears on her eyes and say “it’s over” and it will be).


End file.
